La croisiére noire (1926)

La croisière noire / The Black Journey (1926) is a French expedition film by Léon Poirier. The expedition was one of the publicity missions sponsored by André Citroën, with support from the Société de géographie and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, to promote his vehicles. The mission aimed to open a regular motor route in Africa and had political and cultural overtones. Starting at Béchaar, Algeria, on 28 October 1924, the expedition crossed the Sahara Desert and proceeded through Mali, Nigeria, Chad and Ubangi-Shari in French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and the Belgian Congo. The film and photos represent the European colonial gaze of a century ago, as this postcard series shows.


French postcard. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Nobosodrou, Femme Mangbetou. The Mangbetu are a Central Sudanic ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Belgian Congo. The Mangbetu, and in particular the elongated heads of the women, obtained by deforming the skulls of children from an early age, fascinated European explorers and writers from an early age.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Beni-Abbès. Beni-Abbès is a town in western Algeria.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Djerma warriors in parade costume (Niger). The Zarma people (also written as Djerma) are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost Niger.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Arrival of the first cars at Lake Chad (14 December 1924).


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: A woman with lip plates (Sara-Djingé) (Sarh - formerly French colonial Fort Archambault). All the women of the Sara tribe in Sarh in Chad have this stretched labret piercing of the lips as a sign of beauty. The effect is produced by piercing the lips and gradually enlarging the holes by inserting wooden discs, the size of which is increased as the lips get distended.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Hippopotamus hunt (Ubangi-Shari). Ubangi-Shari was a French colony in Africa, part of French Equatorial Africa. It is now the Central African Republic.

An expedition with political and cultural overtones

La croisiére noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926) covers the second expedition organised by Georges-Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil for Citroën. Léon Poirier directed the film, and Georges Specht was the cinematographer.

André Citroën sponsored these publicity missions, with support from the Société de géographie and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, to promote his vehicles. Citroën aimed to open a regular motor route in Africa, and the expedition also had political and cultural overtones.

The expedition started at Béchaar in Algeria on 28 October 1924. Then it crossed the Sahara Desert and proceeded through Mali, Nigeria, Chad and Ubangi-Shari in French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and the Belgian Congo.

The 17 members of the expedition included Haardt and Audouin-Dubreuil; cinematographer Léon Poirier with camera operator Georges Specht; Eugène Bergognier from the West African medical school; geologist Charles Brull; and the painter Alexandre Iacovleff. The group travelled in eight Citroën B2-based half-track cars, which had regular wheels in the front and continuous tracks in the rear.

The expedition took place in October 1924, while Poirier's film premiered in 1926. Loads of photos were exhibited too, e.g. at the Louvre in 1926. The collection of 207 photographs taken during the expedition was likely made by one or more of the expedition's participants.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Indigenous Ubangi dressed for the ritual dance of the Gan'za. Ubangi-Shari was a French colony in Africa, part of French Equatorial Africa. It is now the Central African Republic.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Lion hunt in Ubangi-Shari.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: African elephant (Api Elephant Domestication Centre, Belgian Congo). Belgian Congo is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Woman of the Logo (Belgian Congo - now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Logo people or Logoa (plural) are an ethnic group of Nilotic origin who live predominantly in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as parts of western Uganda and southern South Sudan.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Crossing a river in Mozambique.


French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Crossing a river in Madagascar.

Source: ArchiveGrid and Wikipedia.